The recent tragic and completely avoidable deaths of 13 women and the critical condition of many more following laparoscopic sterilisation in Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh, signals that nothing has really changed in India's family planning programme over the past several decades. The manner in which the surgeries were performed, in complete violation of all standard operating procedures and ethical norms, amounts to grave violation of the very basic health rights of the affected women...

After 22 years of the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics (IJME) and 10 years of National Bioethics Conferences(NBCs), it is time for some reflection on our achievements and the challenges ahead.We launched the NBC in 2005 as an independent platform for bioethics, for the participation of individuals, organisations and institutions concerned with this subject in India. We expected about 100 participants and were delighted when over 300 participants from more than 100 institutions turned up.

In the early 1990s, an appeal was made, both in India and globally, for access to palliative care to be treated as a human rights issue. Over the past few years, India has witnessed robust advocacy efforts which push for the consideration of palliative care and pain management as a human right. Central to this paper is India's...

A transparent and evidence-based priority-setting process promotes the optimal use of resources to improve health outcomes. Decision-makers and funders have begun to increasingly engage representatives of patients and healthcare consumers to ensure that research becomes more relevant. However, disadvantaged groups and their needs may not be integrated into the priority-setting...